Death Penalty Sought in Yosemite Slayings

Prosecutors said today they will
seek the death penalty against Cary Stayner if he is convicted of
killing three Yosemite National Park tourists.

Stayner, already serving a life sentence in the killing of a
park naturalist, pleaded innocent to three counts of murder and a
number of additional charges in the deaths of the tourists.

Stayner, 39, was arraigned today in Mariposa Superior Court,
and prosecutor George Williamson announced he will seek the death
penalty in the February 1999 killings of Carole Sund, 42, her
daughter Juli, 15, and family friend Silvina Pelosso, 16, of
Argentina.

Stayner was sentenced to life in prison last year after
confessing to murdering Joie Armstrong, 26, a woman who led
children on nature tours in the park. Federal prosecutors dropped
their bid for execution as part of a plea bargain.

Alleged Confession on Tape

The announcement to seek the death penalty in the slaying of the
tourists was anticipated after Mariposa District Attorney Christine
Johnson brought in Williamson, a prosecutor who specializes in
capital punishment cases.

Stayner admitted the killings in a six-hour taped interview with
FBI agents in July 1999, shortly after Armstrong's headless body
was found in a creek near her cabin in the park. An excerpt of the
tape was played at a preliminary hearing last month in which
Stayner described how he preyed on the tourists and methodically
killed them one by one.

He said he had fantasized of killing for months, and said he
turned the dream to reality when he saw "easy prey" through a
window at the Cedar Lodge, where he worked as a handyman just
outside the park.